Kampfer: Trauer und Liebe
By theschwa72
A/N: This is an AU fic where Natsuru is replaced with an OC of my own devising (And anyway, who even liked Natsuru except all the female leads in the canon? I certainly didn't) and under the premise that an extraterrestrial spaceship containing five human-looking extraterrestrials, each with a different colored bracelet, demanding certain things like the creation of Kampfers, among other things, from the governments of the world, or they would destroy Earth. Kampfers are public knowledge, and also have great social status in most countries. Anyway, here's a list of warnings for this story that most likely will come into play later on:
D/s, Sex, Emotional Breakdowns, Blood + Gore, Depression, Passive + Active Suicidal Thoughts
Anyway, with all that out of the way, E-N-J-O-Y!
Chapter 1: It is Time
Kazuo Hanaku was walking to school, carrying his bag in front of him with both hands. His short black hair was blowing slightly in the wind, and his dark brown eyes almost perfectly matched his hair. His uniform was mostly unwrinkled, but his posture betrayed his disinterest.
Kazuo stepped in the door, paying no attention to the conversations of the others around him. After all, they rarely had anything to do with him, and when they did, it was never good. He continued to his first class, sitting at his desk, pulling out his books and notebook and preparing for another boring day at school.
As he listened to the teacher drone on, Kazuo's thoughts drifted to the night previously, which had entailed various things, none of which had a good impact on Kazuo's psyche.
###
Kazuo walked in his front door, after picking up the mail, and shut the door as he looked through the mail. His hand stopped, though, as he saw the letter he had sent to the address his friend Tsuki had sent him before she moved, telling him her soon-to-be new address. It was unopened, and had the words "return to sender" on it.
It... didn't go through? Is she not there? Did she send me the wrong address? But... she didn't send me a correction, and she knows that I said I would send her mail, so what's with that? I don't have her email, either, so how the hell am I supposed to contact her? Why can't I contact her... Kazuo fell to the ground, wondering why he was the one who couldn't contact his friend, while all the others he knew had their friends right next to them, at school or neighbors.
I have no one but Tsuki... but maybe I don't have anyone, not even her, if she sent me the wrong address. Why me? Why does it always have to be me? With everything that's happened - With the depression and paranoia, the anxiety and the PTSD - Why couldn't someone else bear the burden for once? I've done enough, right? Kazuo realized tears were falling, and wiped them away furiously. I can't cry, I can't feel like this, it's wrong, I should take what life throws at me and try to make it through. That's just how life is, right?
A traitorous voice in the back of his head muttered, Then maybe you shouldn't live anymore. His logical mind answered back, Shut up! I need to live, so you can just fuck off! The traitorous voice didn't bother Kazuo after that, but its words lingered. Maybe living isn't the only option...
###
Kazuo got his lunch out, and went to the roof, his usual spot where he ate, alone. He had gotten past his first three classes with only his sheer force of will keeping him in the room through the boredom. This time, though, he saw a group of girls already there, eating in the spot he usually ate in. He felt himself getting angry, and tried to calm down, but it was already too late.
It's one thing after another - First last night, then these girls stealing my spot - It's neverending, everyone's just out to make my life worse. That's all they do, there's not a single person except Tsuki who cares - No, don't think about her! No one cares about me, no one cares about my problems, I just exist in a place where people pass me by and hurt me by extension of their actions they think are only affecting themselves! Kazuo just ran down back to the classroom and began eating there, hoping that no one would bother him, and just ignore him, but he heard things that were no doubt directed at him as he ate, such as,
"Do you see that guy? He's not cool at all!"
"Do you see that guy's hair? It's so terrible! Even Souta has better style than that!"
"That guy has no class!"
"He's stupid! I've never seen him do any work at all in class!"
"Wasn't he the one who..." That one trailed off into giggles. Kazuo tried his best to ignore the comments, but he felt frustration mounting inside himself, and a tear fell down his cheek. Trying hard not to let others see it, Kazuo finished his food quickly and took off out of the room.
The world hates me, nothing good happens to me, because I'm not worth it. Why do I exist? What purpose do I serve in the world? No reason, I'm just a coincidence of nature! I have no purpose, I'm worthless! I have no reason to exist, I should just disappear!
Going to the nurse's office, he knocked on the door, feigning a headache by holding his head in his hand.
"Come in!" came the nurse's voice. Kazuo opened the door and stepped in, seeing the nurse sitting at her desk. "Oh, hello Kazuo. What's wrong, do you have a headache?" Kazuo nodded, and she opened one of her drawers. "I'll get you some Advil."
"Thank you very much," Kazuo responded, knowing that Advil would do very little for his headache. "Can I lay down until it goes away? It's really not letting me focus."
"Of course," the nurse said. "The other students haven't been bothering you, have they?" Kazuo stiffened, then forced himself to relax.
"No, not at all, what makes you say that?"
"Well, lunch break isn't over yet, and most students prefer to stay with their friends and then say that they have headaches to get out of class," the nurse explained, lifting a bottle of Advil and unscrewing the cap. "Not that I'm saying you don't have a headache, but sometimes I can tell that students are just faking them to get out of class. I give them Advil and send them back to class." She smiled, and handed three of the pills to Kazuo, screwing the cap back on. "Use the water fountain that's right next to here, unless you can dry-swallow them, in which case do whatever you want."
"Thanks," Kazuo said, taking the pills and walking out the sliding door, putting the pills in his mouth and swallowing them after he got to the fountain; he felt a very real headache beginning. He walked back and nodded to the nurse, laying down on one of the beds.
Why am I doing this? Oh yes, that's right; I couldn't stand being around those people who exist only to make my life worse. Why did it turn out this way? Kazuo just laid there, thinking on quite a few things, until he fell asleep.
###
Kazuo was awakened by the sound of the bell, and looked around at the room. He then remembered that he had gone to the nurse's office for a headache that he didn't have, but then began.
"Um, what time is it?" he asked quietly to the figure sitting at the desk. The figure turned and Kazuo saw the nurse's face.
"It's club time now, but if you want to go home now, you can," the nurse told Kazuo.
"Ok, thanks," Kazuo replied, standing up and getting through the lightheadedness to pick up his bag.
After getting out of the school building, a classmate came up to him and questioned,
"What do you think about the current administration's policies for dealing with the Beta Centauri Pirates?"
"I don't know," Kazuo said, masking inner irritation. He just wanted to get home as fast as possible. "What are the Beta Centauri Pirates?"
"A made-up organization to ask people about their opinions on the current administration. You're one of the few people that doesn't answer based on their pre-formed opinions of the administration. Congratulations."
"I... see," Kazuo responded, confused as to why the question had even been asked. "Can I go now?"
"Yes, of course," the classmate said, and Kazuo began the trek home.
When he got to his house, his headache had mostly eased, and in its place was a deep fatigue. I'll take a nap, and just be done with it. He lay down on his bed, and closed his eyes, letting that day's worries flow through his mind.
###
Kazuo woke from a pain that was everywhere, like lightning racing through his body. He opened his eyes, and rapidly looked around. He was in his room, on his bed, and there was little light, aside from the red flickering on the walls. Kazuo tried to sit up, but the pain was too great. He began to scream, a wordless yell that would sound akin to a wounded wolf's howling of pain.
What the hell? What is this? Why do I hurt so much? Oh god!
"Aargh!" Kazuo screamed, as the pain intensified, then it felt as if the pain was radiating outwards, away from himself. Then he heard the shattering of glass, and looked around for its source, the pain having abruptly disappeared. He looked for a clock, and turned on his light, but saw his window, broken from the inside, the pieces of glass all over the roof. He ran downstairs, going to call the police when he bumped into someone.
"Wha - ow! Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?" The new person turned to face him, and Kazuo could see that it was a girl with long black hair, wearing his school's female uniform, and a face he recognized as Shizuku Sangou, the student council president of his school, and also a known Kampfer - on the red team, if Kazuo remembered correctly. "Aren't you a Kampfer? Why are you here? I don't have anything for you!"
"Except yourself," she said, her voice beautiful. Kazuo raised his eyebrows in questioning, trying to figure out her meaning.
"What do you mean?" Kazuo asked.
"Look at your right arm," she said, and Kazuo did, blinking when he saw a black, metal bracelet with curves in it, repeated over and over.
"Isn't this a -"
"Kampfer bracelet, you're correct," Shizuku interrupted. "Now, there's no time to explain everything, so grab together your most prized possessions and meet me down here in five minutes or less. We're leaving this place for good, just so you know, so get what you love and bring it down."
"And if I say no?" Kazuo challenged, defiantly looking at Shizuku, who materialized two daggers connected by a chain after he said it, and pointed one at him.
"I kill you. We can't have you living at this house anymore. That's the way the Moderators decreed it. You know about the Global Moderator Treaty, right?" Kazuo nodded; the Global Moderator Treaty had been the treaty put into place at the demand of aliens who had crash landed in Japan in a UFO. The aliens had decreed that they would spare planet Earth destruction by their hands if all the humans agreed to their terms, which included financial provisions for the Moderators and their fighters, called Kampfers, who would be selected from countries all across the world and forced to fight in "Battle Conventions", conventions in huge arenas where there would be a battle royale until only one Kampfer color remained, whether the others surrendered or died. "So you know that while we have good standing, some people might hate us?"
"Well, yeah, but I thought only girls were chosen as Kampfers," Kazuo said.
"Usually, they are, but apparently you're cute enough as is for them to choose you. Joking. You'll transform into a female body when you fight and train, but revert when you don't need to be in Kampfer form." Kazuo was flustered at the first part, then nodded in understanding. "Well, what are you waiting for? You have only four minutes, now!" Kazuo nodded and rushed upstairs, getting a duffel bag and putting his school things, toiletries, a change of clothes, his wallet, and, with a bit of trepidation, put the letter that was returned to him in his bag.
Kazuo ran down the stairs, and saw Shizuku standing expectantly near the door.
"Are you ready yet? You took three and a half minutes - I was about to go up and yell at you." Since Shizuku was still holding her daggers, Kazuo didn't argue, and simply followed her out the door and into a limo, not surprised for some reason that Shizuku had access to a limo. She opened the door for him, letting him sit down in the back, while she talked with the driver for a few seconds, then got in, sitting next to Kazuo.
"Um, Shizuku?" Kazuo asked uncertainly.
"Yes, Kazuo?" she replied, grinning devilishly as she moved closer to Kazuo.
"One, how do you know my name, and two, what happened to me?"
"I know your name because the Moderators keep a tab of who is going to become a Kampfer next, and send it to the Kampfer houses that need to take in the Kampfer."
"Alright, but what was the lightning that was hurting me earlier? Do you know what that was?"
"For Kampfers, the Shattering makes them feel the pain they can cause with their powers. And before you ask, the Shattering is when a human becomes a Kampfer in full."
"Ok then, but why me?"
"Why you? I don't know why the Moderators chose me, much less anyone else."
"Oh." Kazuo sat in uncomfortable silence, it being uncomfortable mainly because Shizuku was pressed up against him, and smiling wide. "Could you, um, give me some space?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have any more space," she said innocently, and Kazuo immediately decided that he didn't like Shizuku, however beautiful she might be.
She's too pressing - she's too close! She needs to back off!
They continued the uncomfortable silence that Shizuku was far too obviously enjoying, and Kazuo looked out the window. They were going past a forest, on a dirt path. The limo was spewing up dust, and it was getting difficult to see, both from the low light and the obscurity of the dust.
The car suddenly came to a stop, and Shizuku got up and opened the door for Kazuo, who stepped out. Shizuku shut the door, and led Kazuo up to a gigantic mansion with six floors, each with a different color of light on it. The first floor had plain lights, the second blue ones, the third red, the fourth white, the fifth none, and the sixth silver. Kazuo recognized the colors as the colors of the different Kampfers, and then glanced at his black bracelet. He assumed that he would go on the fifth floor, since that was the one without light, which most likely meant black.
"You'll be on the fifth floor, the one without any lights," Shizuku said, confirming Kazuo's assumptions as they walked into the building. "Since you're the first black Kampfer, you'll be the leader of that floor, and get the best room." Kazuo nodded to show he understood, but then caught a glimpse of the interior. The first floor was extravagantly laid out, with couches, plush cushions, bright LEDs, paintings on the wall, tapestries, and soft gray carpet.
"Woah!" Kazuo gasped, shocked. "How do they get the money for this?"
"Because of the Global Moderator Treaty, we get way more money than we need, strictly speaking," Shizuku informed Kazuo. "But at least we're getting too much, rather than too little."
"I suppose," Kazuo said. Shizuku led him to a flight of stairs, and handed him a key card.
"This is the key to your floor," she told him. "Only black Kampfers can go onto your floor without permission from you, the leader of the floor. For example, I'd have to ask you to open the door in order to go on your floor, otherwise I'd be breaking the rules. And no one breaks the rules here. If you do, your team abandons you at Battle Conventions, so I'd suggest not doing it."
"Ok," Kazuo said, nodding. "So I just go up to my room - er, floor - now?"
"Well it'd be good to drop your stuff off, but you should come hang out down here after you're done settling in, so I can tell you more about this house."
"Alright..." Kazuo said, eyeing the key card. He nodded to Shizuku and started up the stairs, his bag slung over his shoulder.